Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The wordsmith’s lament

It’s funny how hard we try to constantly reinvent our
language, always searching to replace the words we use. Some are totally
serviceable words and we should keep them. Others make my head explode and
should be on one of those “Words That Need to Be Banned” lists.

In covering the trucking industry, it’s easy to get sucked into
using certain words. When so many topics stubbornly stick on trucking’s radar
screen, but your job is to write fresh new copy everyday about it, you spend a
lot of time with your fingers hovering over the keyboard, trying to avoid using
worn-out phrases.

As we move into 2012, I hope somebody comes up with some new
ones.

I am a wee bit tired of regulatory
overload, race to the bottom and second-class citizens. And thrown under the bus – as in what the
EPA is doing to trucking – can be retired, too. And when we are talking about
the FMCSA website, we need a replacement term for having to drill down to a certain part? Or go deep in the weeds? That was kind of
fresh last year but outlived its cuteness, sort of like carmaggedon.

Then there’s the corporate mumbo jumbo. When you hear what a
major OEM or some major trucking company is going to accomplish in 2012, why is
it always that they are well-positioned?
The company is always – if nothing else –forward-thinking.
These corporate PR people make themselves sick coming up with a word that does
not reveal how precarious the company is in these tough times. They’ve told the
trucking press that so many times when it was clear there was trouble, those
words designed to be positive now make me suspicious.

And speaking of positive – let’s lay off positivity for a while. And I think we
are getting close to exhausting our use of the aha moment, too.

In the past couple of years, if something went wrong in a real
big way, it was an epic fail. This
was OK for a while but let’s retire that one, too. And by the way, it’s OK to
use big. Why why why do we have to keep looking for words like ginormous and humongous? Maybe a pet peeve, but I’m tired of those two words.

In describing some fabulous truck design or chrome and light
show accessory, we need to implement restrictions on wow factor. Maybe Land Line
only uses it once a year.

Guys, I am calling for a ban on tighty whities. You women who work in the trucking industry, I have
one for us, too. Let’s vow to quit saying we have to put our big girl panties on when it’s time to take on a challenging
or unpleasant task.

It’s not just trucking words. I have said “I’m jes’ sayin’”
for the very last time.

I’m also swearing off three A words in 2012. Yep, I am done
with absolutely, awesome and amazing.

I like Anderson Cooper, but he has said amazing enough times in 2011 for all of us.

Same with “bad actor.”
That term was clever at first, describing people in trucking that are a
black mark on the industry. The feds really glommed on to that phrase. I think
it put a label on people that the government did not know how to describe in a
PC way.

DC fatigue was a
clever way of describing how tired we are of Washington’s crap. But that’s so
30 seconds ago. Oops. Strike that last line; surely I can do better …

Featured Post

When we started this little adventure into “blogging” 10 years ago, we didn’t quite know what would become of it. Over the years it’s grown...

Glad you stopped by

Tandem Thoughts is where the LL media team shares opinions, commentary, humor and candid discussion. We drop honesty bombs, we poke fun, we offer provocative analysis of news and events of interest to truckers. No topic is off limits. Be sure to subscribe or check back often. There's always something new to see.

Land Line Magazine official publication of OOIDA

Want to comment

To comment, click on the headline of the entry you want to comment on. On the bottom of the page you will then click on "Post a comment."

You DO NOT have to have an account to submit a comment, as we allow for anonymous comments. Either type in a nickname or click anonymous. Publish your comment and you're done.

Comments are moderated for profanity, topic relevance and spam. Moderation of posts occurs during normal business hours Monday-Friday.

Comments are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Land Line Magazine or OOIDA and are subject for consideration for inclusion in the magazine.